While few people would argue that children should be free to wander the streets aimlessly after midnight, the actual benefits of the law are at best dubious. Police reported that their enforcement was lax, and officials cannot prove the curfew actually reduced juvenile crime or victimization. If cases are typical, they suggest that the law has little effect. And by focusing on the curfew, officials and residents may be blinding themselves to real solutions to the juvenile crime problem. Most of the crimes do not occur during the hours the curfew is in effect. The law set curfew hours of 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sundays through Thursdays, and 12:01 a.m. to 6 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.
Instead of restricting children's nighttime access to public streets, parks, basketball courts and movie theaters, officials and community leaders should encourage young people to visit those places and engage in activities that occupy them and give them reasons not to commit crimes by day or night. Curfew laws and similar measures, such as trying ever-younger children as adults, are easy to pass and cheap to implement. They may also impress voters and comfort residents and tourists—but the comfort is a false one. The only way to stop juvenile crime is to attack its real causes. Being young and out late at night is not among them.
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